A Night in Nairobi

My attempt at learning GIS failed again today. Not only did my GIS program not properly download, but when I tried to learn the software from Sarah’s computer, we realized she didn’t have half of the maps we needed either. After she went to talk with another person in the office, we agreed on learning GIS sometime during my last week at icipe. Learning GIS isn’t essential to the research I will be preforming but will serve as a handy tool in my future. A colleague who has all of the information will have to be the teacher then.

Since Sarah had to represent the CHIESA project at a meeting in the morning, she sent me to Fabian’s office to get briefed on my upcoming trip to Kakamega. I asked Fabian where we were staying. Being a researcher, he gave me the GPS coordinates. I guess that’s about as exact as we will get. He also gave me the coordinates from the run; I just need to find someone to run with in the afternoon now. I still don’t really know what I’m doing in Kakamega. I know it has to do with water quality and taking samples out of the forest. I will learn when I get there.

Sarah spent the afternoon helping me to figure out my research paper and other logistical aspects of writing it. She provided me with some great resources for more background information, as well as tools to help me analyze the data I collect. Being a focus group discussion, the data is more challenging to analyze because people can say whatever they want. I won’t be able to have percentages of people who responded in a certain way. There are quite a few benefits to conducting my research this way, such as the variety of information I will receive, but analyzing will be a challenge. I look to start writing the paper in the coming weeks; some background research is still needed before I officially begin.

Each Friday, one of the researchers sponsor a “tea time” where employees can get a soda and sweets. This was the first time I went to one and wasn’t surprised to find all the seats taken and the majority of the staff present. When talking about who the sponsor was, I was amused at how kindly and admirably the speaker spoke of the sponsor. Of course it was this way to encourage others to sponsor the Friday “tea time” or even for the same researcher to continue his contributions.

Mercy, a grade school friend of Sarah’s and a colleague at icipe, invited me to attend her friend’s birthday party dinner. Taking up every opportunity to experience more of Kenya, I agreed to go. We drove to town and met her friend, Jillian, at a local hair salon. Just in the time waiting for Jillian, I learned quite a bit about African hair and how expensive it is to maintain. I also didn’t realize how most Africans have weaves in their hair. The process looked really time consuming. I’m so thankful to be able to comb my hair and leave it.

Walking through the streets of Nairobi on a Friday night is quite interesting, especially when you’re the only mzungu around. Mzungu is the Swahili word for white person. When writing this post and looking it up, I learned it is literally translates as “a person who walks around aimlessly”. I’m glad to know that’s what people think of me. Anyways, the streets are packed as tightly as possible, and when I stick out people will often say things to me. I always ignore them and know whomever I am with will take care of me, but people I am with can always tell I am terrified, and I’m not going to lie, it’s scary.

We arrived at the restaurant around seven. This, apparently, was early as most people did not come for quite a while. I sat, observing the atmosphere and occasionally adding to the conversation when others were speaking in English. When one of the guys showed up and Mercy had gone to the bathroom he asked if I was part of their group. I laughed and said yes. I think I really confused him. The topic of age came up among us. I never realized it in the past, thinking the people I worked with were only a few years older than me, but the people I was around were over ten years older than me. What? No wonder the topics of conversation such as politics and children are not what I am used to. I’ve been told that talking with older people will broaden my intellectual capabilities, though. Before dinner was served, warm and wet cloths were passed around to wipe our hands. We ate with our fingers, the Kenyan way, all sharing the same platter. Since goat meat was served, I opted for some fries. Once again, it was great to get out and see Nairobi at night.